Conversations with a seven-year-old about architecture and not knowing everything
One of my associate niblings is the kind of little kid that sounds like a world-weary seventy-something Yorkshireman in a flatcap. Seven going on seventy. He has delightful niche interests and is a lovely, thoughtful little guy who, because he likes to occasionally roll down hills and engage in other such shenanigans, is generally regarded as A Problem.
Last time I saw him we were walking through one of the country's older cities and he was pondering architecture and how the city we were in looked like Paris, or New York (neither of which he's been to) or did they look like this place, and how that could happen... And it was so interesting to talk to him about his ideas as he puzzled it out.
But there was this edge of worry because he knew he was missing something. Which worried me, in turn, that he felt like he couldn't figure it out because he wasn't clever enough, rather than because he is seven years old and lacked not smarts but experience.
Which I tried to find a way to say without being condescending, putting the emphasis on it depending on how many places you go and what you see, which comes with time.
But that's how we all come to our knowledge: with experience and time. There is so much knowledge our paths must branch. So that no one can know everything, not any more. Even if someone did know everything there was a point they didn't. Similar to how conversations with a toddler accidentally gave me a growth mindset.
The 'today I learned' should be a joyous thing. Like the xkcd comic. Of course you shouldn't make fun of people for not knowing things! I say this as someone who knows very few things.
My (internal) response when people are a tool about it is always, "Wow, must be nice to have been born knowing everything."
Also, being able to put yourself in the position of someone who doesn't know everything about a topic is a very useful skill. For education, training, mentoring, empathy... just being a nice human.